Painkiller - Judas Priest (1990)

It might seem reasonable to listen to a fully modern extreme music sort of record and and wonder how that could possibly be related to the sing-along, riff-heavy, air-guitar-inducing metal of the 80s.

Well, here’s the missing link, the heavy metal Archaeopteryx that bridges the gap.

Judas Priest had already made a habit of adapting to new developments in heavy rock and then excelling at it like it’s what they were born to do. They saw the move to the heavy drive of death- and thrash-related underground bands, and they said, “Oh, like this. Right.” This thing is a chugging, seething slab of mostly modern metal that merges the old with the new.

Rob Halford’s voice is always amazing, and the drums and guitar are equally far up in the mix most of the time to make this sound so muscular.

It does lapse back into 80s metal tropes in places, but that’s pretty forgivable: it is still of its time. The last track in particular, Living Bad Dreams, is a spooky-power-ballad that, if it wasn’t made for a Nightmare on Elm Street movie, easily could have been.

Tracks I Liked

Painkiller - fight me if you want, but this is one of Priest’s best songs, and one of the great high points in metal.

Leather Rebel - an intro that could easily be on a much more recent death album, but then back into a classic Priest landscape of tense paranoia

A Touch Of Evil - one of the more old-school sounding tracks, but still a banger.